He always liked to hire farm kids, a retired businessman told me, because they had a sense of what needed to be done and jumped in and did it.
Another farm kid, Zach Kinne, said he decided to work in agriculture when he went to Washington, D.C., and someone told him he functioned pretty well for a farm boy. Mr. Kinne, the former president of the National FFA Organization and a graduate of North Harrison High School, is the kind of young man who makes you proud of this area.
The kind of kids who start doing chores about the time they start walking. The ones who say “yes, ma’am” and “no, sir.” The kids who play on the basketball team, serve in the church youth group, act in the school play and earn full-ride scholarships to college.
We need more of them.
Desperately. I have no doubt that the most urgent issue facing Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas is a declining population; in particular, the rapidly dwindling number of children.
Drive across this specially blessed corner of the earth with the blue sky, green grass and tall corn, and the beauty can take your breath away. Then you notice something else: An almost eerie quiet. Busy houses with swing sets in the backyard are easily outnumbered by abandoned homesteads. In the homes that are occupied, at least one wage earner likely has a long commute to work each day.
It paints a dismal future for the small communities that give this region its personality and produce those hardworking country kids who fuel the world’s largest economy.
If the trend continues, it will lead to heartbreaking decisions. Rural residents know the vital role of good infrastructure and could conclude the region has too much infrastructure. A shrinking population cannot support the number of schools that were built when farms were a half-mile apart and families with eight children were the norm.
On the other hand, small towns consider schools their prize assets and will fight to the death to keep them. School bond issues around the region this year emphasize consolidation and efficiency. They share a definite sense that the future demands retaining and attracting families and a good school system is essential for that goal.
But it may not be enough. In this economy, jobs are like jewels and workers will move to possess one. Rural America’s got an edge with the alternative energy industry, but it will be a continued hard scrabble to keep jobs here.
Any effort that reverses, or even slows, the spiraling population trend and allows more children to grow up in our rural communities means America will be richer for the investment.
